Sometime stories of a sometime scribe who sometimes writes

Listen to Granda. He knows

"Because I choose to be an eagle rather than a turkey I live by choice rather than by chance. I make changes rather than excuses. I am motivated rather than manipulated and make myself useful rather than used. I choose to excel rather than to compete and choose self-esteem rather than self-pity to drive my motors. I listen to my inner voice rather than the random opinions of others. Thus I fly higher and see further."

Listen to Granda. He knows

Never turn down a chance to learn something new, whether it be a new poem or a new language, a new take on how to boil an egg, how to make porridge in a pressure cooker. Learn to work with your hands and you will never go hungry. But, read, read, read.

Listen to Granda. He knows

The person who has learned to work with his hands will never go hungry. Learn to cook. Learn how to fix a bicycle. Learn how to make things from wood. Learn crocheting, welding, sailing, gardening.

"Working" with computers is not working. Not until they produce an app that can plant a cabbage and water it and tend it and grow it and harvest it and cook it and put it on a plate.

At the same time, READ! Read not the stuff you find in computers, because it has invariably been copied from somewhere else on the internet. (Anytime you find a nugget on a computer, copy and paste it into Google and see how many times it has been copied).

Read from primary source material. Actual books are an excellent source of primary information. Newspapers are NOT. The only piece of information in a newspaper that Granda might believe is the date. Even that is frequently useless, with weekly local papers carrying Thursday's date and rarely available to read til Friday or later.

A tiny number of people make things happen in life; a larger number watch things happening but rarely if ever engage. The vast majority of people go through life wondering what the bang was.

Listen to Granda. He knows

Tout la monde, Granda's 12 commandments for smart young pups

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world does not give a fukk about your "self-esteem" or "feel-good factor". The world expects you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make £50,000 a year right out of school. You won't be a manager with a company car and a nice suit until you earn them by hard work and application.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is a bastard, wait til you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath one's dignity. Granda has a different word for burger flipping -- He calls it a chance to earn the price of your food.

Rule 6: If you mess up in life it is YOUR fault, not your parents'. Don't whine about your mistakes, cock-ups and crass arrogance. Learn from your own stupidity.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talking about how cool you thought you were. So! Before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try cleaning out your own room.

Rule 8: Schools may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished fail grades and they give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. Just WAIT til you see how this notion works in REAL LIFE.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into terms. You don't get Summers and Christmas and Easter off. Employers don't give a fukk about your FINDING YOURSELF.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually leave the coffee shop and go to work if they have a place to work or they go looking if they haven't.

Listen to Gráinne Ní Dhúfaigh omgwaca she knows

I think eating three square meals a day is important to keep your body nourished

and your metabolism in a consistent routine (as it were);

get a decent bit of exercise - even if it's as simple as walking

instead of driving, taking the stairs etc. - drink plenty of water and get plenty of sleep.

Your body burns through a lot while you're asleep!

In your meals, make the veggie portion the biggest

but mainly just try to make sure it's balanced -

your body needs a bit of everything and

cutting something out in a blanket way can do more harm than good.

If you're properly nourished, you should feel full and not crave anything

(all of us crave chocolate/crisps or the like on occasion; such is life!)

and you can snack on healthy bits like nuts.

My main concern with this kinda thing is that it can be easy

to cut back on food but do it in a way that's counter-productive -

reducing the amount you eat or specific nutrients can mean you aren't filled up,

so you end up eating more than you need to fill up -

I think if your meals are nutritious and balanced and most importantly consistent, your body gets used to it and your metabolism knows how to process everything and then added exercise can help you shift some extra pounds (though of course you may need to eat more if you're doing hardcore exercise cos you're moving more). Anyway, apologies for the wall of text but I hope some of that is helpful! Just try to take care of yourself - I think the aim should always be to make sure you're healthy, though I realise it's hard if you're struggling with your shape and you just want to change something.